STEAMing with JSA

MM 4/24/17 Good afternoon, I want to say thank you to the staff for all of your hard work that you have put forth this year to make our students successful. I know that we do not hear thank you enough in our profession, so I would like to make sure that you know that I GREATLY appreciate ALL you do to make JSA Magnet great. With these words in mind, please remember to provide our students with positive praise within the classroom. You will never know or understand the power of your words on a students' persona, psyche, and self worth. Please view our video that is on the topic of the power of positive psychology. Highlights 4 The Week Shout out to Mrs. Barnes 8th graders in Reading for having the highest performance with Achieve 3000 articles and earning 2 Gift Cards that were turned into rewards for the students. Mrs. Barnes went above and beyond by calling each of the parents of her students and relaying the positive information to our stakeholders giving them posi...

MICHAEL'S MEMO 4/17/17 Good morning staff, I hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend. As we enter the stretch term for our year, please remember the importance of maximizing our instructional time. We are charging towards the next year and cannot afford to waste the valuable time we have with our students. Learning  Focus Please review the anchor standards in each of your instructional areas and pay close attention to the assessment schedule for all of our grade levels. In the elementary levels, please review the information listed below: ELA: Sticky Standards Week of April 17 K U9W1 Reviewing RL.1.3 . Student tasks should reflect identification of characters, setting, and major (as opposed to minor) events. It is fine to expose our kindergarteners to sequence, cause and effect, and problem-solution with organizers or questioning, but in the context of how authors use them to tell major events, not as isolated skills. Students do not need to be able to identi...

Michael's Memo 4/10/17 Good morning as we embark on the Reading FSA ELA journey please make sure that the other students surrounding the classrooms are quiet and on task. The investment of our hard work is about to come to fruition with our students' showing what they have learned this year. Please remember to check for electronics and that all items are turned into you and turned off. Reflecting on our classroom policies, set up and structure, please look and see what perspective we are using to drive instruction. Our video today provides an example of how student centered teaching can transform the learning environment. Learning Focus Focus on utilizing technology within the classroom to enhance the instruction. I understand that we are testing two grade levels this week, however we do have the BYOD and several of our elementary classrooms have computer stations. Let's be innovative using the resources we have to enhance learning. Behavior Focus Thank yo...

Michael's Memo 4/2/17 Good evening, thank you first and foremost to the 3rd Grade team (Parker, Ricketts, Boyce and Henry) for 100% attendance for FSA ELA for the first 2 sessions of testing for their grade level. It is extremely imperative that we continue to have quality instruction transpiring within ALL of our classrooms to ensure the students are working up to their potential and beyond. I have a few data points and information that will go out to specific grade levels to assist in the focus of lessons to serve as a countdown to ensure students have covered all of the necessary information for their EOC and FSA Testing. As we continue to move into testing, please remember that there are more factors that go into a students' success other than right or wrong questions in class. Our Ted Talks focuses on the influence of food on learning........ Learning Focus Our K- 5 Grades need to follow the instructions below concerning the classroom instruction. Hold the cours...